


Don't Take Too Long, Though (I Need You)

by darlingdipierro (orphan_account)



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: Elliot finds out about domlene (he already knew), F/F, Fluff, Post-Canon, dom comes home from budapest, fluff AND longing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:27:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22060051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/darlingdipierro
Summary: So maybe Elliot was onto something. She hadn’t told him the full truth, definitely wouldn’t tell him that she talks to Dom every day, nearly constantly, even on the phone sometimes, even though she fucking hates not talking in person. But they weren’t together, not really, not officially, anyways. She just liked talking to her, hearing her voice, getting that brief moment of comfort, relief, peace. That was it. He didn’t need to know the frequency of their conversations. And they were definitely not a couple.(Not that Darlene hadn’t entertained the idea, or hadn’t thought about bringing it up to Dom once or twice. That was another thing he didn’t need to know.)
Relationships: Darlene Alderson/Dominique DiPierro
Comments: 13
Kudos: 112





	Don't Take Too Long, Though (I Need You)

He brings it up on a Saturday, out of the blue, so casually that Darlene feels even more taken aback than she probably would have if he had sat her down and had a long, boring conversation about her feelings, or some shit like that. Not that Elliot would ever do that, but sometimes, she wishes he would. She hates not having time to prepare a response to difficult questions like this one.

“So. How’s Dom doing?”

Darlene nearly drops her phone, fumbles with it in her hands, sits up from her position on the mattress. Her face must be shocked, she thinks, eyes big and glaring and mouth slightly open, the expression she knows she always gets when Elliot pulls some shit like this.

“What do you mean?” It’s all she can get out. She tries to hide the shock in her voice, lacing all of her words with a hard edge, a warning sign: _Don’t go any further with this._

Elliot shrugs. “You’re texting her, right?”

Darlene scoffs, rolls her eyes, feigns an aura of casualness. “I have other friends, you know.” It’s not necessarily true, but it’s not Elliot’s business either, she thinks.

“You’re always on your phone, man. I just figure, since, you know—“

“Elliot.” Her tone is sharp, commanding. “I really don’t wanna talk about it.”

“You never told me what happened.” Another shrug. Elliot is better at pretending to be casual than she is. She hates that about him. 

“Nothing happened. She went to Budapest. It’s good for her. She just needed to get away for a while. Nothing big.”

Elliot stares, his eyes burning a hole through her. She fucking _hates_ it when he does that. Ever since he woke up he’s been better at making eye contact, at asking her questions that he never would have before. She sighs.

“We’ve talked a little bit. It’s nothing serious.” She prays that he’ll drop it, knows that he won’t.

“It’s cool, dude. I was just curious.” Elliot’s back is to her now, his body situated at the sink as though he’s about to clean dishes, despite the sink being completely empty. Darlene leans back against the bed, picks up her phone again, opens her messages, finishes her text to—well, to Dom. Elliot doesn’t need to know that, though.

“What happened between you two? You never said.”

This time, Darlene tosses her phone, sits up quickly, growing angrier as each moment passes. “Dude! Seriously? Are you really asking me if I’m with Dom?”

Elliot turns his head over his shoulder for a brief moment before facing the sink again. Darlene catches a small smile on his face, the corners of his mouth curling up. She loves seeing him smiling again—except for right now. Right now, she wants to wipe it off his face.

“I didn’t ask if you were together. But I’ll take that as a yes.” His tone is light, lighter than it should be, considering how fucking pissed he must know Darlene is.

Darlene rolls her eyes, stands up abruptly, slings her bag over her shoulder. “Whatever. You’re fucking nosy, you know that?” She moves towards the door—she needs to get out of here. This shit is too much to deal with.

“I’ve been told,” he replies.

Darlene swings the door open, tosses a quick “Fuck off” over her shoulder before slamming it shut.

……………………

So maybe Elliot _was_ onto something. She hadn’t told him the full truth, definitely wouldn’t tell him that she talks to Dom every day, nearly constantly, even on the phone sometimes, even though she fucking hates not talking in person. But they weren’t together, not really, not officially, anyways. She just liked talking to her, hearing her voice, getting that brief moment of comfort, relief, peace. That was it. He didn’t need to know the frequency of their conversations. And they were definitely _not_ a couple.

(Not that Darlene hadn’t entertained the idea, or hadn’t thought about bringing it up to Dom once or twice. That was another thing he didn’t need to know.)

Truthfully, there really wasn’t much of a point in storming out of Elliot’s place like that. It probably just made him feel more assured in his assumption that her and Dom were a thing. The fact that she’s crashing at Shayla’s place kind of made the whole thing less dramatic, too.

She’s lying on the mattress situated in the middle of the room. The rest of the place is still pretty much empty, except for her clothes thrown haphazardly around the apartment. Still, it’s a place to sleep. That counts for something, and it’s less painful than staying at Angela’s was. She gets to be closer to Elliot, too, which is usually a plus. Even when he pisses her off, she knows that they need each other, that everything they’re still processing is easier when they’re by each other’s sides.

Darlene scrolls through her phone, opening apps, closing them, opening them again. Anything to pass the time. She wants Dom to text her back. It’s been an hour, which she knows isn’t _that_ long, but she’s bored and irritated and needs some kind of distraction, and Dom always knew how to center her, anyways.

(Her mind is wandering, too. Wandering to places she doesn’t want it to. Elliot asking about Dom rattled her more than it should have. Of course he knew there was something important between them—he had seen her panicking, frantically contacting every hospital in the nearby vicinity, nearing a panic attack thinking about what could have happened to Dom. Had heard her as she told him they couldn’t leave, not yet, not until they found Dom, _I can’t just leave her here. I don’t want the Dark Army going after her, too._ )

(And then, of course, he must be suspicious about what happened that night—the best night of her life, the worst night of her life. He must want to ask about what she did to get the badge, what she did to make Dom so angry, why she had come back into the car after their conversation, crying, trying to breathe, trying to wipe her tears away quickly before he said something.)

Her phone vibrates. She jumps slightly before picking it up. It’s Dom—she’s calling. Darlene feels a small smile begin to form. She answers immediately without hesitation.

“Hey.” Her voice is calm, calmer than it was earlier, no hint of anger or fear in it anymore. Knowing Dom was on the other end gives her some sense of peace.

“Hey,” Dom replies, her voice soft as always, light, nearly melodic. It soothes Darlene every time, though she would never admit that. “How are you?”

Darlene shrugs, forgetting that Dom can’t see her. “Okay. Shitty, but okay.” Dom laughs, and Darlene’s heart lightens, the heaviness in her chest lifting. “Just got into some stupid shit with Elliot. We’ll be fine. I just need to cool off for a bit.” She loves the faint sound of Dom breathing, the reminder that she is there, she is alive, she is healing, she will be okay. _They’ll_ be okay. “What about you?”

“I’m good. I’m really good, actually. I, uh, I kinda have news. I thought it would be better to call and tell you instead of texting.” Dom’s voice is nervous, but not sad—a mixture of excitement and anxiety, as it often seems to be when she speaks to Darlene.

“What?” Darlene is curious, would beg her to spit it out already if she was anyone else.

“I’m coming back to New York.”

Darlene freezes. Everything seems to stop around her—no sounds of the city outside, no humming of the air conditioner, no air floating around her. Did she hear Dom right?

“I booked a ticket earlier. I’ll be back two weeks from tomorrow—“

“You’re coming back?” Darlene’s voice is hoarse, as though she hasn’t spoken in years. She clears her throat, tries to force down her excitement, tries to hide the way her heart is pounding, loud enough that she swears Dom can hear it.

A soft exhale, the sound of Dom laughing. Darlene can picture her smile. She wants to see it again. “Yeah. I figured I should let you know. Would I be able to hitch a ride? I don’t really have any money I can use there to get a taxi.”

Darlene nods, forgetting again that Dom can’t see it. Everything feels fake, time going by in slow motion. She fears that if she moves, everything around her will shatter and this will all be a dream, all for nothing, a stupid fantasy. “Yeah. Yeah, of course. Text me the info. I’ll be there.”

“I will,” Dom replies, and Darlene doesn’t care how simple the words are. Dom is coming back, Dom is coming home, Darlene is going to see her again.

They say some parting words that Darlene forgets, too dazed still, everything dreamlike. She feels a smile break out across her face. She can’t remember the last time she smiled like this, so broadly that her cheeks hurt.

Maybe this isn’t going to be easy to hide from Elliot anymore.

(Darlene decides she doesn’t care all that much.)

……………………

Two weeks can go by fucking slow when you’re waiting for something big. Darlene didn’t realize how monotonous life can get. The only periods of relief she has is when she’s with Elliot. She loves the times when she goes over, when they smoke and watch a movie and exist with one another. She didn’t know the magnitude of which she missed him.

(She still hasn’t told him about Dom, despite the fact that she’s picking her up tomorrow. He hasn’t mentioned her since that day, and Darlene can imagine how smug he’ll be when he realizes she’s returned.)

……………………

How fucking long can it take to get your luggage? Darlene feels like she’s been waiting outside for hours, sitting nervously in the car, waiting for Dom to return. Her leg is bouncing up and down, out of anxiety and impatience. She groans, lays her head back on the seat.

She must have fallen into some sort of half-sleep, because the next thing she knows, she hears a knock on the window. She jumps, opens her eyes, sees Dom outside her car.

(Dom, her hair vibrant and falling over her shoulders, messy and perfect. Dom, her grey eyes watching Darlene, a small smile, her lips barely curved. Dom, the light dusting of freckles Darlene can see as the sun shines on her, creating a glow behind her, almost angelic.)

She gets out of the car in a rush, before Dom can make a motion to get in. She grabs Dom, holds her tight, clutches her to her body, as tightly as she did when she had begged Dom to come with her two months ago. She needs to feel Dom, to know she is real, she’s there, she’s home, she’s not going anywhere. Dom’s arms slowly wrap around her, pull her in tighter.

They stay there like that for a while, and Darlene thinks that maybe, Dom needs to know that she’s real, too.

……………………

“Hey, how’s your brother?”

The question comes out of nowhere, and Darlene groans internally. If it was anyone but Dom, she thinks, she would be pissed.

They’re in Dom’s apartment, as they have often been in the past two weeks. Darlene likes going there at the end of a long day, or when she’s in a shitty mood, or just because. Dom always makes things feel lighter.

(She ignores the longing she feels whenever she’s there to ask Dom why they haven’t kissed yet, or if that’s something Dom would even want anymore. She knows that they parted on good terms, that Dom’s words to her before she walked away had held some sort of question, a way of asking Darlene to come back to her. Does she still feel the same, or did the two months apart make her change her mind, make her realize that Darlene has put her through enough shit, that pursuing anything more than a friendship would be stupid and pointless? She fears that that’ll be Dom’s answer. She doesn’t ask.)

Currently, Darlene is lying on her side on Dom’s bed, comfortable, scrolling through the other girl’s laptop to find a movie to watch, something to take their mind off of things. Dom is in the kitchen, grabbing them drinks, or snacks, or whatever she had said she had to get up to do. Darlene doesn’t really remember—she was too focused on how close Dom was to her before she abruptly stood up.

“He’s good. Why?”

She can see Dom’s back to her from her position on the bed, the way she shrugs as she rummages through the refrigerator. “Just curious. I know you were really worried about him before I left. Wanted to make sure he was doing good.”

Darlene nods to herself. “He is. He’s been through a lot. He’s doing well, considering everything.”

She sees Dom nod, hears her hum in agreement. For some reason, the topic of Elliot has made that question burn in her mind even stronger. If he knew everything that had gone on in the past couple of weeks—fuck, in the past months—between her and Dom, she figures he would probably tell her to just go for it. _Dude, you’re gonna keep stressing about it. You should just ask before you lose your shit._ Sometimes, his few words of advice can be pretty helpful.

She feels the bed shift, realizes Dom has sat down on the edge. She sits up quickly, clears her throat, crosses her legs. Maybe she should just do it. Maybe she should just get it over with. Maybe—

“So, what are we watching?” Dom hands her a beer, gestures to the laptop. The screen is still blank—Darlene hadn’t even started searching for something, had been too distracted. Shit.

“Oh, uh—I couldn’t think of anything.” She presses her lips together. “Wanna do something else?”

Dom takes a long drag of her beer, making a face. “Like what?”

“Go somewhere.”

She can tell that Dom is suppressing a sigh—she always prefers to stay home, even if she is working on her social anxiety. Darlene gets it—she wants to stay here with Dom, too. But her thoughts are too heavy, too oppressive, too overbearing. She feels like she can’t breathe. She feels like Dom is everywhere here, in every inch of the apartment, in the bed sheets, in the air, in the silence that surrounds her.

Dom looks at her, sees the serious expression on her face. Darlene can tell that she understands—that Darlene needs this, that she needs to get out of the apartment and doesn’t want Dom asking any questions. Dom gives her a soft smile and nods.

“Sure. Where to?”

……………………

It’s on a Saturday—a month after Elliot had first asked her about Dom, ironically enough—when Darlene can’t take it anymore.

“How was Budapest?” They’re on Dom’s bed again, sitting side-by-side, backs to the headboard, actually watching a movie—something Dom picked with a long title that Darlene couldn’t be bothered to remember. If Dom liked it, she did. “I mean, we never really talked about it that much. Did you like it?”

Dom turns to look at her, shrugs. “Yeah. It was good. Really beautiful. It was nice, getting away for a while. It was good for me.” She turns back to the screen, and Darlene can tell she’s trying to focus her attention on the movie, to avoid whatever Darlene has up her sleeve. “You were right, I guess. I did need that.”

Darlene smiles softly, even though Dom isn’t looking at her.

( _I’m glad you’re back now,_ she thinks, _I’m glad you did what you needed and came home, everything feels so much less empty with you here, I’m glad you didn’t take too long._ )

(Fuck. She needs to say something.)

“Meet any cute girls?”

She wants to slap herself as soon as the words escape her mouth. Shit—that’s really how she’s going to start this conversation? That was the best she could come up with? Jesus. She needed to work on her communication skills when it came to this shit. Why was she so nervous?

She can’t look at Dom—she’s too embarrassed. Dom turns the volume of the movie down, the sound only a faint hum now. “What do you mean?”

Darlene shrugs, trying to remain cool, knowing that Dom won’t buy it. “I don’t know. I was just curious. Meet anyone special?” There. That was a better way of phrasing it, she thinks, even though it’s pretty much the same question.

“Not really. Would it matter if I did?” Darlene can sense the hint of a laugh in Dom’s voice. She meets her eyes, tries to keep her face neutral even when she sees the small smile on Dom’s lips.

(She’s beautiful. She’s so fucking beautiful, god, she’s so fucking beautiful and Darlene is aching and it hurts and she needs to do something, she needs to do _anything_ , she needs—)

She leans forward, brings a hand to the back of Dom’s neck, kisses her quickly. It’s timid, almost shy—much different from the confidence she had when she kissed Dom all those other times. This one is more serious, she thinks. More of a question, something permanent translated through this kiss. She pulls back, looks at Dom, watches as her eyelids slowly open. That look, the softness in her gaze, that specific glint in her eyes that made Darlene first realize what was happening, where her feelings for Dom were headed, all those months ago.

Dom’s smile spreads slowly. She presses her lips together, not really trying to hide her grin. Darlene feels the corners of her lips curling up, but suppresses her own smile.

“Sorry,” she says, even though she doesn’t have a reason to apologize, not really, not when Dom’s face is telling her this is okay, this is what she wanted, what she was waiting for. “Sorry. I’m glad you had a good trip. I’m really glad—“

Dom brings a hand to her cheek, and kisses her. The kiss is soft, sweet, much longer than Darlene’s had been. Darlene sinks into it, memorizes the feeling of Dom’s lips against hers, the way Dom takes her time with this kiss, notices how this is the first time they’ve kissed without her feeling like time was running out, like they were headed towards an inevitable end. She brings her hand to the back of Dom’s neck again, pulls her in deeper, relearns the taste of her, the way she kisses with a certain rhythm, an unconscious technique that she’s perfected. She could kiss Dom all day, she decides.

She doesn’t know how long they kiss for. When they finally part, Darlene smiles, slowly locks eyes with Dom. Dom gives a tiny laugh, and the sound is everything Darlene has ever wanted, ever needed, to hear.

“Does that answer your question?”

……………………

She tells Elliot as abruptly as she can.

“Dom is coming over later.”

Elliot is sitting at his computer, scrolling through some webpage, maybe looking for imperfections there. She hasn’t really brought up hacking much since he woke up, but trusts that he’s being safe. It’s his business, anyways.

He shifts in his seat, turns to face her. She’s perched her side on the mattress, held up by an elbow, looking at him head on and determined to not look away.

“What did you just say?” Confusion and amusement. That seems about right, Darlene thinks.

“I _said,_ Dom is coming over. I thought it’d be cool if we all hung out. I think you guys would get along. You actually have a lot of shit in common, believe it or not.”

Elliot smiles softly, and Darlene can tell he’s holding back from making all sorts of gloating comments about how he was right, there _was_ something there, he could read Darlene like a book and she was shit at hiding secrets from him, anyways. She’s thankful he doesn’t voice any of this.

“Okay.”

Darlene raises her eyebrows. “’Okay?’”

“Yeah. It’s cool, man. I’d like to get to know her. If you like her, and all. She seems cool.”

Darlene smiles. “Yeah. Yeah, she is.” She looks down at her phone as it vibrates with a message. “Oh, shit—another thing, um—she’s coming over like, now. Like, she’s a minute away.”

Elliot sighs, his expression conveying annoyance that isn’t really serious. Neither of them can stay mad at the other for long, anyways.

Darlene stands, adjusts her clothes, walks over to Elliot, who has turned back to face his computer. She slings her arms around his shoulders, hugging him as best as she can with him sitting down.

“Thank you.”

She doesn’t need to say more. Elliot knows the magnitude of the words, knows everything she’s trying to convey with them. Darlene pulls back, smiles. Something in her feels right, peaceful, at home.

There’s a knock at the door. Darlene goes to open it, knows Dom will be on the other side, waiting for her, like she had promised she always would.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year! Thought I would upload a cute post-canon fic as a present to you all. Hope you guys enjoy. Thank you for your support, and I hope this year treats you all well <3


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